U.S. application Ser. No. 09/714802 describes a prescription medication dispensing machine capable of, among other things, automatically labelling a medication for dispensing to a specific patient in response to electronic prescription data supplied to the machine. This application presents various applications and improvements to the embodiments illustrated in U.S. Ser. No. 09/714802. In particular, but not limited thereto, the present application describes applications and alternate embodiments of the apparatus particularly useful in pharmacy settings in drug stores or other establishments like “big box” retailers.